The following cliffs will be closed to climbing beginning March 1, 2012: Angels Landing, Cable Mountain, The Great White Throne (beyond single- and double-pitched climbs), Isaac (in Court of the Patriarchs), The Sentinel, Mountain of the Sun, North Twin Brother, Tunnel Wall, The East Temple, Mount Spry, The Streaked Wall, Mount Kinesava, and the Middle Fork of Taylor Creek. All other cliffs will remain open to climbing.

Description

This is a great undiscovered mixed free and aid venture. It goes all clean. You have the option to climb moderate aid where you need to, or push the free climbing up the abundance of hand and finger cracks. Each belay has a ledge and the rock for most of the route is exceptional. The last 2 pitches are of lesser quality, but are still worth it especially if you like aid climbing. Mandatory free climbing is about 5.8

Location

Climbs the center of the SW face of Mt. Majestic, following a left leaning corner system. The setting is spectacular.

Climbed the first four pitches of this on 4/9/2010.... and here is how it went down.

Quick summary - cool mix of aid and free climbing, mostly good rock but still plenty of bombs waiting to explode as you'll see. Given the short approach, I suspect this will become a popular route - at least the pitches we did.

Approach - follow the signs to the Middle Pool, and after the slot between two huge boulders hang a right on the trail back to the Groto. Go about 100-200 yards and look for a long open area up to the rock. Follow this to the base and then traverse left to get to the route. Almost no bushwhacking is required! 30 minutes tops from the car.

Gear - The topo gear list is right on the money, at least for P1-P4. I didn't use the sliders but they're probably required on P5. I also had a set of medium to big offset nuts that came in handy, but weren't required.

Pitches

P1 - Straightforward C1. There is a bolted anchor now at the belay, even though it is not indicated on the topo.

P2 - Classic pitch. 5.10 seems about right. Mostly tight hands to a big rest and then a final layback finger crack. The crack is SHARP and the right wall is covered with razor-sharp calcite. Good luck if you don't tape. Bolted belay.

P3 - Fun 5.8 crack climbing to an fun C1 roof. Belay takes yellow and red alien size cams (look up and right in the good rock, not the crappy cracks on the left).

P4 - 5.9 chimney/squeeze. And this is where things got interesting..... The "unique hollow crack" is cool, but it doesn't take gear very well. About 2/3 of the way up it I was able to get a small cam behind a chockstone. The climbing isn't terribly hard fortunately and it is cool. Next up was the start of the squeeze chimney, and as I was worming in I reached up for a big hold up to the left... and next thing I know I was falling amidst an explosion of rocks. I think the rock that pulled off must have been at least the size of a small microwave. Fortunately the pieces that hit my wife were small. Amazingly, a large piece remained trapped between my shoulder and the wall when I finally stopped falling. SCARY! I was able to throw it to the side - I hate to think if it had continued falling as it would have hit my wife smack on. And to top it off, a sharp edge severed a good portion of the sling that held my fall.

The rest of the squeeze chimney wasn't particularly fun given the previous event, but it does take gear well and the rock is bomber. I think I must have grabbed the only crappy hold on the whole pitch!

So after that misadventure, we decided to bail.

Descent

The first rap was a 60m double-rope back to the P2 anchor. It was a pretty tough pull. Make sure it is flipped out of the Half Dollar, or you will never get it.

The next rap was 30m down the the P1 anchor and the rope buried itself in the crack after the pull. I had to jug the stuck rope (on belay with another line placing gear) and then downlead back to the anchor.

The final rap was about 35-40m I am guessing.

I think the P2-P1 rap will always be a rope eater. With double 70m ropes you can rap to the ground from P2, but it is more like 230' not the 215' listed on the topo. Do NOT try it with a 60m - you won't make it.

Summary

As the description indicates, the climbing is fun and the rock is mostly excellent. Just watch out for the bombs that remain - and there are plenty. And expect the Zion Half Dollar to be the crux for most folks.

I don't think it'll be off the beaten path for long. With the short approach and good climbing, I suspect it'll become quite popular!

Forgot to put this in my description, but in April the route came into the sun around noon - it is in a west facing corner. In the depths of winter, I suspect Lady Mountain might hide the sun for much of the day.

P3: Easy crack climbing to an amazing roof move. Still plenty of looseness in the little cave that you stand on to get into the stem. Wild moves laybacking and stemming to make your way around the roof to a bomber lock/jug. 0.3-0.5 BD C4's for anchor. 11c/d

p4: Moderate climbing with good gear leads to a short run out of easy terrain because of the hollow crack. And then the goods. The Zion Half Dollar. Scum, stem, jam, armbar, heel toe your way up and around. Great gear the whole way. Lovely pitch! 5.9OW Bolted belay.

Ledges at each belay, just mind the rope eating ability of 2nd pitch on rappel.

Free Rack: (2) 0.3 and 0.4. (3) 0.5-#1 (2) #2-#4 (1) #5

Could loose the #5 for sure and maybe a #4 if you are solid on flaring widness as other gear abounds.